I had been running, as I always did at mid-morning. I had taken my usual route, which took me past the Berbil Village. This time, instead of relative quiet and the occassional robot-bear voice, I had heard cries and uproar. I had slowed, and instinctively taken my staff from its gauntlet on my forearm, but even before I could extend the weapon, I had been struck by a beam of light. I had felt my body rise into the air and realized, much too late, that I had run into a trap. I had stared frantically around, searching for something to grab on to that would keep me from drifting into the atmosphere, and had spotted the slim form of Chilla, who was holding a struggling Berbil. Before I could do anything, however, Tug-mug had launched himself upward from his hiding place among some shrubs, seized me by the arm, and proceeded to ‘bounce’ me and himself away from the Village.

It had been a dreadful trip, even without my gravity; the constant change of height made my head whirl. Somewhere along the way I dropped my staff and lost any chance of communicationg with Cat’s Lair or the Tower of Omens. It had been an unpleasant surprise to find Skytomb grounded, not in Darkside as usual, but just outside the Forest of Mists. Only a few hours ago Panthro had scanned the area, and the massive tower had not been there...which meant they had planned things very carefully.

Tug-Mug hauled me into the main control room of Skytomb, and Luna, seated as always on Amok’s massive shoulders, turned from her viewscreen to grin. Tug-Mug dropped me on the floor. I actually landed, which was a good sign. The effects of the carbine were wearing off.

"Ah, good! Just who we wanted," Luna stated in her shrill voice. "Red-eye!" The tall Lunatack appeared, holding a crossbow.

"Yes, Luna?"

"Manacles, you fool!" Luna waved at a contraption in the corner of the room. It was trailing wires and cords, all of which ran from it to the array of computer equipment in the room.

Tug-Mug, still behind me, grabbed my arms at the elbow and held them in a bruising grip. Red-Eye approached, holding two sets of restraints, and clamped a manacle around each of my wrists. I almost laughed; he hadn’t even the sense to chain my hands together! But any thought of humor faded quickly, for he dragged me over to the contraption. It was a treadmill, with bars on either side of the moving belt. He clamped the dangling ends of the manacles to the bars; I looked at the conveyer belt, then back at Luna.

"You look like you are getting the idea, Thundercat! Yes...it’s your speed we want. You’ll run, and the power you generate will fuel our fortress."

"And if I don’t run?" I asked, trying to sound scornful instead of afraid.

"You have a choice, Cat. You can run, or you can die," Luna said coolly.

Fear went down my back; knowing these fiends, I might end up doing both. "I can’t run forever! You-"

"Silence! You will run until we decide that you have done enough. What we do with you then depends on how well you’ve done. Red-Eye, why don’t you give her some encouragement!"

I had almost forgotten that Red-Eye was behind me. I had no time to move... though *where* I could have moved to was open to question... before I felt a searing pain tear down the length of my back. I gasped, but refused to cry out. ‘His crossbow’, I thought; ‘...it must be the point of the bolt...’

"That is a warning. Now, decide! Run or die, Cheetara!"

**********

I ran. I ran for hours. My back throbbed with each stride. My legs grew weak and shaky. I heard my harsh breathing and felt myself sweating from the exertion. I ran on, aware of Luna’s frequent approaches and cries of "Faster!" My sight began to blur, and my legs seemed to move of their own will...I had no say in the matter. ‘Tired,’ I thought dimly. ‘So...tired...’ Luna approached again and her voice battered at my ears. I couldn’t ignore her, but I couldn’t make myself concentrate on what she was saying, either.

Sudden, unexpected pain ripped across my already-aching back. This time I could not restrain a groan. I could feel blood ooze down my back. Red-Eye had slashed me again with the crossbow-bolt. "Faster!" I heard that one word, but I couldn’t go any faster. I was starting to stumble.

More time passed; I had no idea how much. I only knew that I wasn’t really running now, just staggering. ‘I can’t,’ I thought, and fell, my arms still held up by the manacles. I felt the conveyer beneath me grind to a halt. I could hear voices over my head, but couldn’t grasp what was happening. I didn’t care; whatever happened next hardly mattered to me now. It was enough that I didn’t have to run anymore.

My wrists were unlocked from the restraints, and I slumped forward to lie on the conveyer. I felt myself lifted, and winced at the pain that ripped across my back. Movement...half dragged, half carried. Metal walls moved past, seemingly endless. Then a halt. There was a click, and a sudden blast of searingly hot, dry air. A hatch opened, and I looked down to see patterns of brown sand far below. ‘The desert,’ I thought dully.* I looked up then to see two of the Lunatacs standing over me. Alluro and Tug-Mug.

"Luna’s not pleased with you, she-cat. She’s ordered us to leave you here in the desert. But don’t worry...you won’t be lonely for long. We’ll come back soon and keep you... company," Alluro said in his smooth voice. Even through the mist of exhaustion, I understood what he meant, and shuddered inside.

"Heh heh, yes, we will," Tug-Mug chimed in. "So don’t go, heh, running off anywhere. Otherwise we’d have to track you down."

"Yes, that would be inconvenient," Alluro agreed. "We would have to punish you if you did that."

That was clear enough, I thought. But I had no intentions of being used by either of these creatures. A moment later, I was falling.

I landed hard, and lost my breath from the impact. I lay still, gasping for breath, only dimly aware of the fortress as it blasted away and left me. It was hard to breathe; the air was so hot. The sun blazed down on me as I tried to sit up. Exhausted or not, I knew I could not stay here. I gazed around at the endless plains of sand. The sun was high, which puzzled me; surely I could not have run myself down so badly in just a few hours...but I couldn’t worry myself with that right now. Alluro and Tug-Mug would return, no knowing exactly when, and I had to get away from this area.

I stared around, dazed with exhaustion, trying to focus. Endless plains, and searing heat... I was in danger from more than the Lunatacs, I realized abruptly. I was already dehydrated, for I had been given no water or food in all the hours I’d run, and the heat was overpowering. I couldn’t take my bearings, I was too bewildered and weary to concentrate, and the sun was not low enough to tell one direction from the other. I made an effort to rise, and my wobbly legs refused to hold me. My head spun, and I sank down in the sand. Blackness took my vision.

*********

I was unconscious for several hours. When I became aware again, the sun was quite a bit lower, but the fierce heat had not lessened. My head was a little clearer, but my body ached, especially my legs. As I forced myself to sit up, I became aware that I was badly sunburned. My mouth was dry, my tongue swollen from thirst. I pushed physical considerations to the back of my mind and turned to look at the slowly setting sun. Fear crept over me as I saw how long I had been unaware; dusk was not far away, and I knew that full night would bring Alluro and Tug-Mug back, to... I didn’t let myself consider it, but I knew my only chance was to get as far away as I could, as fast as I could. Shakily, I dragged myself to my feet and looked at the vast sandy plains.

I glanced at the sun to take my bearings, then faced the direction that would take me back to the Lair. But I didn’t set out right away. Instead, I thought for a moment, then faced the sun again and began walking in that direction. It frightened me to do it, for I was not at all sure I had the strength left to get to the Lair, even in a straight line, and this would add a great deal to the trip. But the Lunatacs would expect me to head directly for the safety of our fortress, and would be able to track me with no effort.

Of course, I thought fearfully, they’d be able to track me easily anyway, if they thought to, but there was a good chance they’d assume that I’d attempted to go right home....And by the time they realized I hadn’t, I hoped to be well out of the range of their scans. I was all too aware that I might die in the fierce heat... but better the desert than the Lunatacs, I thought in grim determination. At that thought, I forced myself into a sort of run, suddenly desperate to put as much distance between myself and the place they’d left me as possible. I knew I shouldn’t run, not under that blazing sun, but in the back of my mind were the leering faces of Alluro and Tug-Mug. For all the space around me, I was in a trap and the jaws were beginning to close on me.

I had no idea how far to ran. I didn’t know how powerful the Lunerian scanners were, how far I’d have to go to get out of range. I simply ran, if one could call it running. I had to get away; it was the only thought in my mind for a long time. That, and the awful heat. I knew I had slowed until I was only staggering, I knew that the sun was close to the horizon, and I knew I’d soon die without rest and water...and yet, I also knew I’d rather die running than any other way. I was the Swift One; it would at least be a fitting death.

I stumbled over nothing and fell to my knees in the sand. My vision was failing, and I couldn’t catch my breath through my dried-out mouth. The setting sun blazed down on my back; heat rose up from the desert to sear me. I had a sudden vision of my sunburned skin turning black and and smouldering away, of smoke rising from my charred bones. I would have given my soul for a long drink of water. There was a shrill buzzing in my head, which suddenly snapped into blessed silence.

I woke to a violent shake of my shoulder. It was night, the sun was gone, and cool breezes were blowing over the desert. I was lying on my face, sprawled on the hard ground, and for a moment, feeling the shaking, I thought the Thundercats had found me. Then strong hands drew my arms behind me, and terror flooded me. They’d found me. I’d tried so hard, so very hard, to die if not escape, yet they’d found me-.

"Soo. You decided to be a bad girl after all," Alluro’s smooth voice said coolly from behind me. "I warned you about that. Now we will have to punish you for disobedience."

I was flung onto my back, and winced at the pain where Red-Eye’s crossbow bolt had ripped my skin open. Tug-Mug was standing over me, a shadow in the night, but I could see his grin. He was holding a knife in his hand, and as I lay there, he used it to slice my clothing from my body. I tried to do something, to get up, to fight, to run, but he was upon me, his heavy weight pinning me to the ground.

**********

Their voices still sound in my head. I still hear their laughter, and their crude remarks about me. The pain still throbs within me. Lords of Thundera, the pain, the terrible pain... The ripping of my flesh, the blood; I can still smell the blood... The humiliation of being compelled to do things so repugnant to me that I would willingly have died rather than endure them. That horror will never leave me. I had to obey, I had no choice, though I fought with all my limited psychic power to deny the compulsion Alluro placed upon me. I see their ugly faces, twisted in their passion, and feel the weight of them against me, and I want to scream. Sometimes I do scream. I couldn’t scream then, my voice had been stolen by thirst, so it is only right to scream, now that I can. I dream of them at night, and wake in terror and the echoes of pain; I see them appear before me and taunt me in my waking hours. The took me, took me so violently that I will never bear children... and for some reason, that troubles me not at all, for I can no longer bear the touch or look of any male.

The Thundercats found me, more dead than alive, the next morning, just as the sun was rising. I remember little of the trip home or of my so-called recovery. All that stays with me is the merciful coolness of water on my skin and in my dry throat. It was several days before I could walk, more before I dared leave the Lair.

I have avoided the company of the other Cats, except for Wileykit, and once in a while, WileyKat. The others do not understand, they will never understand. They can’t, and I hold no blame to them for that, but I am so alone...so terribly alone. I tried... once... to tell Lion-O of what had happened, of why he must not touch me, of the shame and agony. But I could see in his eyes that, for him, the horror was over. And as he left my room, ordered out by me so that I could weep in private despair, I heard him speaking to Tygra.

"Still the same..."

"Yes...Snarf said it may take her some time to get over it, Lion-O. I know it’s hard for you to see her like this, but you have to give her time."

"Give her time," I heard Lion-O, my intended mate, repeat sadly. "But how much time, Tygra? How long will it take?"

"How long...?"